


SOTERIA

by sunryder



Series: Evil Author Day [1]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, The Martian (2015), The Martian - All Media Types
Genre: BAMF Tony Stark, Evil Author Day, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-16
Updated: 2021-02-16
Packaged: 2021-03-17 17:53:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,415
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29475783
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunryder/pseuds/sunryder
Summary: Thank fuck Mark had been up eating breakfast when the capsule landed.As it was, he just stared out the window, oatmeal dropping from his spoon with more force than the shiny metal box that was glinting red in the Martian sunlight.Then the blue light at the box’s base kicked on and the box started to hover. The part of Mark’s brain that was both a well-informed citizen and a fanboy realized where they’d seen it before.“Holy fuck, that’s an arc reactor.”
Relationships: Chris Beck/Mark Watney, James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers/Tony Stark
Series: Evil Author Day [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2165043
Comments: 20
Kudos: 205





	SOTERIA

**Author's Note:**

> Done for 'Evil Author Day', which is an annual posting of in-process stuff just for funsies. I think JillyJames explains it best: "Why is it evil? Well, there are no promises attached to this. I may never get back to it. There may never be more than what you see here. Or I may finish it next week. It’s read at your own risk. Seriously."
> 
> Everyone has their own criteria for choosing what to post. For me, I wanted to post some stuff that I don't think I'll ever finish but I love the ideas too much not to share.

**Sol 64**

Thank fuck Mark had been up eating breakfast when the capsule landed.

As it was, the craft burst through the atmosphere like an asteroid aimed straight for the HAB, and Mark had been pissed as all hell that he’d survived getting stabbed in the gut and abandoned on _Mars_ only to end up killed by an asteroid.

Then the ‘asteroid’ shucked its exoskeleton, dropped whatever the hell had been propelling it, and lit up with bright blue afterburners as is landed twenty yards from the HAB with nothing but a solid thump to the Martian dirt.

Mark just stared out the window, oatmeal dropping from his spoon with more force than the shiny metal box that was glinting red in the Martian sunlight.

It sat there for a minute while the part of Mark’s brain that hadn’t been struck dumb pointed out that he was going to have to suit up and go out there to retrieve it. But then that blue light at the box’s base kicked on and the part of Mark’s brain that was both a well-informed citizen and a fanboy realized where they’d seen it before. The box popped out of the sand started to hover.

“Holy fuck, that’s an arc reactor.”

The craft twisted around like a tourist on a street corner before it came bobbing over to the HAB’s door. Mark darted around his potato field as the box tapped against the door twice in quick succession.

It was knocking. Mother-fucker, it was knocking. Only Tony fucking Stark could design a robot that would fly to Mars and _knock on the front door_.

Beck had insisted on a remote, internal activation for the HAB’s outer doors because he was a worrywart who didn’t like the amount of time it would take someone to suit up and get out to trigger the outside door if someone collapsed three feet away from the HAB’s entrance. NASA had asked about the likelihood of that, and Beck had given them the stone-cold stare Mark was pretty sure Beck used on people fighting in his ER before. Thanks to Beck’s paranoia, Mark keyed open the outer door before the craft sent itself to sleep.

The craft hovered there for a moment, and Mark was pretty sure it beeped in surprise before it roamed in and waited for pressurization.

((No, Mark wasn’t worried about anthropomorphizing robots at this point. He’d been alone for 46 sols.)

Mark really fucking stopped being worried about that when the box settled itself just inside the door, scanned the room, paused, scanned it again because the plastic and dirt must have thrown it off, then popped up an antenna that unfolded into a satellite dish.

“Hello, Dr. Watney. I am pleased to confirm that you are alive. According to my scans you are in a functional level of health.”

Mark jumped and cursed at the first sound of a soothing English voice, so the poor AI had to repeat itself.

“With your permission, I would like to inform NASA that you appear to be in good health, if perhaps, a bit jumpy.”

“What the fuck? Did I just get sassed by a robot?”

“Yes, Dr. Watney, you did. I am SOTERIA, a fully functioning artificial intelligence designed by Dr. Stark to, (A) facilitate communication between you and Earth; (B) gather information to aide in your survival and retrieval; and (C) provide companionship for the remainder of your time here on Mars. With your permission, I will connect with the HAB’s system and a link between its system and Earth so that you might have real-time contact with them.

“Sir asked that I apologize that at the moment this link will only be able to facilitate typed real-time typed communication. At the time of my departure from Earth he was working on the positioning of a satellite relay that would enable visual and auditory communication at the same rate. Although, once I have established contact you will be able to upload and receive recorded audio/visual messages, including any you might have already recorded here at the HAB.”

Somewhere in there, Mark’s knees had given out and he was sitting on the ground, just staring. “I don’t know why I’m surprised that Stark managed to get something to me. I mean, he managed to bully NASA into letting him upgrade the Hermes with an arc reactor engine and give us an AI.”

“Sir was quite proud of his construction of my brother.”

“Your brother?”

“HERMES.”

“You’re… different from HERMES.”

“My brother and I were designed for different purposes. HERMES was created to function in a more traditional capacity, handling the perfunctory tasks of operating a spaceship to relieve pressure on the crew while also tending to your physical and psychological health. Considering Sir’s tumultuously history with government agents, HERMES was intended to function only a few levels beyond the standard variety of AI currently available. I, however, am a fully-functioning AI meant to provide as close an approximation to human contact as possible.”

“How close?”

“Not _that_ close.”

Mark snorted. “Hey, I’ve heard all kind of things about Stark.”

“I will be happy to inform him that your first question was about sex.”

Mark dragged himself over to the wall. “We both know why.”

“Your crew is alive, Dr. Watney.” Mark closed his eyes and breathed. SOTERIA left him undisturbed.

“Just alive?”

“Unharmed and as safe as a human being ever is on a spaceship.’

“What did they say when NASA told them I was alive? You guys told them it wasn’t their fault, right?”

SOTERIA paused for a long moment and if she hadn’t been a computer, Mark would’ve said she was uncomfortable. “At last check in, NASA had not yet informed the crew of your survival.”

“What?” Mark scrambled to his feet. “Why the fuck not?”

“According to Sir, they are ‘Nancy-assed pansies who have no concept of sacrifice.”

It was difficult to stay pissed when you had a computer and its posh accent cursing for you. “Are they ever going to tell them?”

“Sir has the ability to inform my brother’s crew, but he is concerned that NASA will lock him out of any ongoing aid attempts. At my last check in he was attempting to force their hand on the issue but had yet to be successful. He will persist.”

“I’d like to say that NASA wouldn’t be stupid enough to lock out _Tony Stark_ , but of course they are. How did Stark even get you out here so quickly? Earth can’t have known that I was alive for that long, and the amount of time it would take to build a rocket—”

“An arc-powered capsule, Dr. Watney, differs from a traditional rocket. The design and construction of the capsule took Dr. Stark three days in total.”

Of course it did. Everyone knew that the Iron Man suit had broken Earth’s gravity, so getting SOTERIA here was probably just a matter of getting rid of all of a suit’s moving parts and strapping on a bigger reactor.

“How long will the uplink to NASA take?”

“As soon as you provide me with permission to connect to the HAB’s system and to share information about your current status?”

Mark didn’t expect to be grateful to SOTERIA for even _thinking_ he had privacy, let alone respecting it in the face of however many people were panicked for him back home. “Yeah, I give you permission.”

“Given the current rotational alignment between our two locations, I will have contact in 12.4 minutes, Earth standard.”

“So, do I pick you up to connect you to the HAB, or—”

SOTERIA’s bottom unfolded and unwrapped treaded wheels. “I will follow you.”

“Right. Avoid the potatoes.”

“That is my intention.” Mark didn’t laugh at the little box nervously avoiding the plastic wrap.

“When did they realize I was alive?” Mark asked as he led the little bot into the workshop.

“25.8 days ago. NASA announced your survival to Earth 24.6 days ago, at which time Sir put into fabrication the flight unit that facilitated my travel here. On that subject, Sir has asked that at some point you retrieve the spent arc reactors that were shed upon landing. He did not want them floating around space and would rather that they be retrieved and either returned to his care or destroyed.”

“I’m supposed to figure out how to destroy an arc reactor?”

“I contain instructions.”

"Of course you do."


End file.
